Results tagged “softball”

     

It's been a day of highs and lows for American women at the Beijing Olympics. Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor defended their gold medal in women's beach volleyball. Though it was raining, the players didn't seem to mind, with Walsh saying, "The rain made it better. I don't know why, but it made it better. The ball is really wet and slimy, and you have to take care of the ball. But it's not my first rodeo in the rain." The Daily News' Filip Bondy noted after the winning spike, "The two Americans dropped to their knees, hugged, rolled around in the sand and came off looking like glazed doughnuts in two-piece bathing suits." Some other stats at NBC Olympics.

Better known for the pinkish Vitamin Water flavor based on it, fresh dragon fruit is currently available at Chinatown produce markets. Because dragon fruit (pitaya plant) pollination occurs only at night, when its huge white flowers bloom, fruit is harvested just a few times a year. Production is notoriously tricky, sometimes requiring a little human-dragon fruit “husbandry.” And while buying food that was jetted at least a few thousand miles to be sold out of a crate on the streets of New York is sort of the antithesis of eating locally, growing one’s own dragon fruit at home is an epic, but still entirely possible, task (see green-shaded area here). Each fruit contains about one thousand seeds that can be used for home-growing experiments. So for the sake of New York needing more crazy fruit pioneers, let’s talk dragon fruit for a minute.

Who better to dissect the hipster than a bartender at favorite hipster hangouts? NY Mag asks bartender at Enid's and The Annex, Lynnea Scalora, some questions about the regulars.

Meat Loaf and Broadway sort of seem like a match made in heaven, or perhaps hell would be more appropriate, as he is taking his Bat out of Hell albums and bringing them to life on the Great White Way. The one-night-only concert, aptly called "Bat Out of Hell on Broadway", will take place November 2 at New York’s Palace Theatre.

Attorney General candidates Jeanine Pirro and Andrew Cuomo delivered a crazy, mean-spirited exchange in their first debate. And if it weren't so sad that these are our candidates, it would be funny. It was a little funny when Pirro mocked Cuomo's record as a "non-practicing lawyer" (14 months in the Manhattan DA's office over 20 years ago) and his record as the secretary of HUD under President Clinton, saying, "Your running for attorney general is like my running for Joe Torre's position [as Yankees manager] because I played softball 21 years ago." Ha - but Cuomo didn't hold back, telling the audience, "Just so we're clear, there is a candidate who is being accused of criminal wrongdoing and is under investigation by a number of law-enforcement agencies and had their ethics questioned - that's not me, however. SNAP!

Anyone who has participated in higher levels of organized sports knows that there's always some sort of hazing involved. From NFL rookies paying for the meals of veterans, to MLB rookies dressing up in drag. Well, Badjocks has some pictures of a local team - the Fordham Softball Team. The pictures, which aren't as racy as some of the others on the site, speak for themselves. Our personal favorite is the one pictured above, which you can click to enlarge.

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scenei. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorrito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers.

Brad Steuernagel, Cassidy Henehan, Peter Kassnove, comedians, hosts, The $1 Room

The Mets won despite some Bad News Bear-like action on the basepaths. Gothamist has seen softball leagues with better baserunning. With the bases loaded and no outs in the 6th inning and a chance to blow the game open. While they did manage to score 3 runs, it seemed like there was a chance for many more. Ramon Castro was thrown out at first base for the 1st out after a ball hit David Wright in the back. Livan Hernandez, who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time, out of position and backing up the catcher in of the plate, picked up the ball and threw out Castro at first as he rounded the bag. The other two outs came on a double play to Jose Guillen in right field. Miguel Cairo hit a fly ball to short right field that Guillen caught and doubled up Marlon Anderson with.

In a re-election year stumping opportunity, the Mayor visited Conan O'Brien's talk show last night and asked him to bring the Tonight Show back to NYC. And Gothamist says, "Please, do!" The AP says that Mayor Bling "jokingly tried to make a deal," offering to give O'Brien a park permit for the Late Night softball team if he stayed in NYC. Conan said, "It's not up to me, I work for the man. If he says 'yeah,' we're fine. So we'll talk." Is the man Lorne Michaels in this case? Or Jeff Zucker, which sounds like "hooker," not "f***er," as we learned when watching Fat Actress? When O'Brien was announced (finally) as Jay Leno's successor, the NY Times' Bill Carter suspected Conan and the gang would move to LA. Gothamist hopes that in the meantime, CBS develops another LA talk show, in the post-Letterman era, and The Tonight Show will have to stay in NY. For starters, Conan will need LOTS of sunblock if he's living in LA.

Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre is banged up with a bruise �the size of a softball� on his leg, but he�ll be making his record 212th straight start at quarterback. Favre will be doing his best to stop the Packers� two game losing streak and don�t count on him taking any dives like he did in 2001 to give Michael Strahan the N.F.L. single-season sack record.

The win was an emotional one for the team, as their coach, Mike Candrea, lost his wife to a brain aneurysm more than a month ago. Candrea will not be getting a medal, as Olympic rules dictate. After the ceremony, Lisa Fernandez, the winning pitcher said, "I wished I could have switched places with him, because he truly deserved to be on the podium.'' Fernandez now has her third gold medal, and we at Gothamist kind of wonder if she'll make a gesture to give Candrea a medal.

Hentgen lasted only two and two-thirds innings, giving up eight earned runs, seven hits, four walks and striking out zero. Vazquez managed to go six innings, giving up nine hits, three earned runs, two walks and four strikeouts. Felix Heredia, Juan Padilla and Paul Quantrill finished off the game, without allowing another Blue Jays run and allowing only two more hits.

Contreras pitched well in Thursday's 7-1 win (see our post on that game here). On Friday it was newly named All-Star, Javier Vasquez, notching his 10th win of the year. Vasquez pitched five and two-thirds innings, struck out nine and held the Devil rays to three runs. Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada each had two hits to provide the offense for the Yanks.

The ball hit the side of Cameron's glove, three runs scored on the play, and the Mets went on to lose, 6-2 (box score). Cameron also went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts for the game and was booed by the Shea Stadium crowd of 23,827. After the game, he understood the treatment by the fans, "That just kind of tells you what they expect of you. I've got no problem with it. I botched a play out there - by far one of the toughest plays you have to deal with out there."

The Mayor also predicts a surplus of $1.9 billion, which gave him and the City Council room to figure out how to spend it (ultimately, the rebate and social services). City Council Gifford Miller speaker said, "This is a budget that does represent a 'good news budget' for all New Yorkers," which the Times noted were Bloomberg's words when he unveiled the budget plan earlier this year.

This weekend looks to be a rather boring for the New York region. The Mets and Yankees are both out of town playing teams in Florida. There is no hockey, no baketball, no nothing. George Vecsey pointed this travesty out yesterday and Gothamist couldn't agree more. When was the last time there were no local sports this weekend? What happened to seeing scores of Navy men and women in the stands of Shea or Yankee Stadium? Fleet week just doesn't seem right without that picture.

Dennis Crowley, Founder of Dodgeball.com

Andy Horwitz, P.S.122

President Bush wanted to freak out little kids from a softball team, so he dropped his dog Barney before boarding Air Force One. Barney did not suffer any injuries, but did have to be kissed by Bush.